Capture Management…

The process of capture management can vary based on the size of the opportunity. The requirement to develop a capture plan should be limited to certain significant-sized acquisitions that warrant such in-depth understanding and market knowledge prior to making a bid decision. However, there are key components of this current process that can be streamlined and tailored to your business model.

The purpose of the capture plan is two-fold. First, it is the pre-request for management to make an unbiased and informed bid/no bid decision on prime contract bids. Secondly, once a bid decision is made, the capture plan becomes one of the key documents for the Proposal Manager and proposal team.

From the Proposal Manager’s perspective, the capture plan contains several key elements necessary to ensure that a winning proposal is developed. These include:

• Win Discriminators – What our solution has that nobody else has and why it is better than our competitor’s solution?

• Evaluation Criteria – How will the selection process be made and to what extent does our company address each criteria?

• Evaluation Board – Who will make or influence the selection and what do they know about our company?

• Purpose of the Solicitation – Why is the customer interested in a new solution and why have they chosen to do it in the manner reflected in the RFP?

• Price – What is the “right” price range for this work? Is this “priced to win” or “priced to value”?

Seneca Creek can assist your organization in establishing a capture management process that fits your business model, culture and target market.
 

Proposal Management...

Marketing and selling are critical to the success of every business. However, in the government marketplace there is a final step that ultimately determines who gets the business – proposal preparation. In every respect, your proposal is the last “sales presentation” that you get to make and, in this sense, it is your most important sales pitch.

Today, price has become less important in winning government contracts as “best value” becomes the driving force in proposal evaluations. It is also true that a very large percentage of proposals submitted pass the technical cut in the evaluation process. So, what makes the difference between the winners and the losers – ‘proposal composition'.

By Proposal Composition we mean several things:

	How well is it written – not how accurate is the technical content, or how sophisticated, but how easy is it to read and understand
	How does it look to the reader – Make it attractive to your readers, does it catch the reader's eye, does it open up their imagination to what you are trying to communicate, is it well organized and easy to navigate - if not then it will be a roadblock to your communication with the reader/evaluator
	Does it communicate your marketing message –Carry your branding forward into the evaluation process; building on what makes you the most attractive and unique potential supplier
	Does it connect to the customer's message –Focus on the most critical aspects of what the customer wants and connect the dots between those wants and your capabilities

At Seneca Creek, we can help you prepare winning proposals. We provide a complete proposal preparation team and manage the effort through to final production, or supplement your internal resources. Our services include:

• Proposal Management

• Editing

• Publishing/Composition

• Graphics Development

• Production

Training...

Seneca Creek offers specialized capture and proposal management training that can be customized to your organization.  Our courses include:

• Capture Management – Positioning to Win (one half day)
• Proposal Management – How to Stand Out in the Crowd (One day)
• Federal Opportunity Development Life-Cycle (one half day)